Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-03-15
A TREACHER0tfS BRIDGE
FURNISHES A PARALLEL TO THE
WHITE RIVER CATASTROPHE.
Six Carloads OF Workingmen and
Girls Dropped Into an
Awful Chasm

Where Upward of Thirty Die, Crushed,
Mansled and NutiIated, While Pro-
baby One Hundred Are
Severely Wounded.
The Old-F fashioned Stove is There BIT Fails
to Perform Its Usual Work Blood Curdling
Scenes Witnessed by the Rescuers-A Game
of Cards That Will Never be Finished
Graphic Description of an Awful Disas ter
Dead-Roil So far as Known
BoSToN, Mass, March The recent ter
ribe disaster at the White River bridge, on
| the Central Vermont railway, was paralleled
Monday and, with the exception of The fire
feature, almost exactly duplicated at Bussey
bridge, on the Dedham branch Of the Boston
| & Providence railway. At White river four
cars were thrown from the track upon
| bridge seventy feet above river, and went
| down with the bridge to the ice below, re-
sulting in the death of thirty-two people and
| the injury OF nearly forty more. At Bussey
| bridge six cars were thrown from the track
| upon dry bridge forty feet above the high
way, ard with the bridge crashed down into
the street. resulting III the death of-accord-
ing to latest reports-tbirty-two people and
the wounding of from forty to sixty more
| At White river the engine and two cars
| nm cn1 fall tba bf~ili rraa nI hat
cupants escaped as by miracle At Bussey
bridge the engine and three cars passed safely
| over AMI their human freight escaped with
| only jar.
The scene of Mondays awful calamity is
seven miles southwest from Beacon hill
Between the Forest Hills and Rosendaie sta
lions, on the Dedham branch, South street
makes graceful curve and passes under the
railroad, which also curves at that point
| The bridge crossed over the highway diagon-
ally, at height of forty feet and was l5) feet
| long. The point is upon the border of the
oil Busiey farm, now the property of Har-
ward college, and the seat of the Arnold
X
| the worklngmen's tt lin, consisting of an en-
| gGne, eight passenger coaches and smoking
car, left Dedham for Boston. Webster
! White was the engineer; Conductor Webster
n, Drake, of Dedham was in charge of the
train, and was assisted by Conductors Myrcn
| W Tillen, of Dedham, and Mr. Stubs.
| Immediately behnl the locomotive was a
| passenger car; following next seven other
ordinary day cars, most # them of the old
| fashioned type-two, at least, with east IRON
stoves i'll the middle of the car-and the rear
was brought up by the smoking car; nine
| cars in all. About 30 people were on board,
mostly Horkingmen ami women, shop and
store girls, with lunch-bags in hand, chatting
| aad laughing msrrily, and 4 few business
| laen. The three forward cars were more
| ienseiy crowded than any OF the others
| ri just 1:l5 O'Clock the train rounded the
| curve and passed upon the bridge The engine
| had Just crossed the last abutment when
Engineer White felt jar as if the train had
struck something. Hastily glancing back
ward ont Of his cab window he saw and
heard as did the engineer of that fated Cen
|
/ bridge falling with crash into the abvss
| below The three cars Immediately follow
ing the engine had crossed the bridge. but
had been thrown from the track Eng ineer
| White at once nncoupIei his engine. and
putting on all the steam possible ran down
to Forest Hills station J. H. Llmon. Il fist
dealer, was driving up from Forest Hills to-
| ward the scene of the disaster when the en-
CINE came down the track whistling wildly
| The locomotive slowed down at the Forest
Hills crossing and Lannon stopped his team,
| shouting TO the engineer. Nv hats the mat
| teri"
| Ny train has gone through Tin bridge
| Telegraph to Boston. was the re ply
| Lannon went to the station with the mas
sage which was quickly flashed over the
wires, Then be FASTENED back to his team
| and drove up to the wreck, being the first
outsider TO reach the spot Arriving at
Forest Hills, the engineer at once rang In
d ire-aarm, which summoned to the scene
| the fire department OF Rosiindale with a
steamer and hook and ladder truck from
jamaica Plain Having thoroughly aroused
| the surrounding communities and tee-
| grsphed the fact Of the dis ,ster to the Off
cials, Engineer White remouuted his eng tine
and ran her back to the wreck, where crowds
were already gathering
The first three cars stood deraiied as he
had left them. The next car was completely
| smashed-went to pieces in the most extra
ordinary and inexplicable way. Its ROOF
went over, the body Of it went down the
abyss, forty feet deep AM was hurled with
| such force against the masonry of the abut.
ment that it was smashed into fragments II
| was III this car, which bore the brunt of the
shock that the greatest number of casualtie;
took place. The next car also dashed agains,
the abutment, passing partially underneath
and partially through the car in In advance
| Of it. The shock left 1t very badly smashed
| but enough of 1t was there to reveal the old
fashioned cast-irJn STOW, standing bolt up
/ right, untouched and intact Still auoth 1
followed this, and directly behind this cal
came another old-taSaloueI one, which es-
capped with less damage than any other that
went through the bridge, a broken central
truss Of the structure serving the purpose Of
peunIng it in an upright position Then
caue another car, which the crash left upon
It's s.,le, thoroughly smashed, and at the enc
the smoking car, which, by most extra
|
side up and left lying upon its roof.
III the roadway under the bridge, then, il
4 space of $50 feet between abutment AMI
abutmeut, there were in an instant piled VI
the debris Of six cars, interviewer, almost
nextriCably, with the trusses and girders Of
the iroH bridge ami within aud among
which the passengers were held fast, Oh
writing in Distress some of them crushed
almost hey ond the recognition Of the human
Shape and one or two of them beheaded. T,
such as had the power to move the means o
eztrication were made the easier by the com
pleteness of the wreck, for the sides and end
Of the cars were nearly all smashed out
having more or less free egress
But III the two cars which struck the abut
meut the scene was fearful. The wooden
debris was piled up about one Of the stoves
&n1 was ON the very point of setting th,
"reti on fire when the earliest arrivals al
The scene and those who had already sic